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Gus Statiras
Gus Statiras (July 6, 1922Gus Statiras [LocateGrave.org - April 2, 2004) was a music dealer, record producer, and briefly a New York radio disc jockey under the monicker "Gus Grant." The colorful founder of the Progressive Records label, Statiras produced and distributed jazz musical records in the 1950s. Frequently in financial trouble, his label was bought and sold twice over another twenty years, then re-emerged under Statiras in the 1970s and 1980s with Japanese backing for another run as an independent record label. Statiras sold it for a second time and then ran the label for Jazzology records. Statiras was a first generation American, the son of Greek immigrants, who was born in Jersey City, NJ. His father owned several lunch stands in the greater New York City area. Described as an "eternal optimist." Jazz guitarist Marty Grosz told JazzHouse.org: ""You couldn't help but like Gus because he was so enthusiastic and charming." He fell in love with Jazz during the Great Depression. In 1937 he and a group of his friends skipped school to see the Benny Goodman big band that was performing at the Paramount Theater in New York City.Gus Statiras:Producer and Music Dealer by F. Norman Vickers. JazzHouse.org Gus went to work for Milt Gabler the owner of the Commodore Record Shop in Manhattan, one of the biggest and most happening outlets of jazz recordings in the city that catered to many stage and film celebrities. Gus wrote about a brief brush with famous movie actresses. While helping screen actress Gretta Garbo, rising movie star Marlene Dietrich came into the store demanding to speak to Gus. She wanted an introduction to the reclusive Garbo. Gus went to ask her, and found that the actress and her friend had gone out the back way to avoid the introduction.Marlene Dietrich and Garbo as told by Gus Statiras. GarboForever.com Statiras learned record producing from Gabler. Gabler worked with guitarist Eddie Condon to bring artists into Sunday afternoon jam sessions that Gabler would record. Gabler also picked up the rights to master recordings of music that other labels decided not to reissue, and would reissue them. Gus, like most young men of the Greatest Generation, fought in WWII. He served as a Private First Class with the United States Air Force.Gus P Statiras, LocateGrave.org Ref: 1644609. He met his wife, Elizabeth Genelle Decker, while he was serving. After the war he moved with her to Tifton, Georgia, and tried his hand at a few other enterprises including a hamburger stand.Gus Statiras:Producer and Music Dealer by F. Norman Vickers. JazzHouse.org Statiras' latter years were filled with tragedy. He died on April 2, 2004 at 81 years of age in Milledgeville, GA., after both of his sons passed. Son Perry died the month prior of acute leukemia. Son Glenn died of a heart attack two years prior.Gus Statiras:Producer and Music Dealer by F. Norman Vickers. JazzHouse.org He is buried at the Ty Ty Cemetary in Tifton, GA.Gus P Statiras, LocateGrave.org Ref: 1644609. He began a music company called Mail Order Jazz, which resold Jazz albums around the country out of Tipton. Highly social, a "wheeler-dealer" and very much into the Jazz scene he was often a seen at parties and events from New York to Florida. Like many of the record producers in jazz of his day, he was part showman, part hustler who remained well-liked in spite of some allegedly questionable business practices. In the 1950's he moved from reselling to producing, founding the Progressive Records label, which produced records with dozens of jazz artists including Cullen Offer, Zoot Sims, and Sonny Stitt. Statiras was always hustling deals, and he had good taste in artists, although he was frequently a little cash or one deal shy of developing a big name artist as a producer. In 1952 he appeared at the studios of the great jazz recording engineer Rudy Van Gelder with baritone saxophonist Gil Mellé to record him for Gus' Triumph Records label.Interview With Rudy Van Gelder (Part 5) by Mark Gelder Jazz Wax (blog) "RVG:In early 1952, a local producer named Gus Statiras by the studio in Hackensack and said he wanted to record a baritone saxophonist named Gil for Gus's Triumph label. We recorded four tracks in March 1952 on tape. "JW: What happened to the Triumph album? "RVG: It never came out, and I have no idea why not." The ambitious Mellé took the recordings over to Blue Note as a demo. Legendary Blue Note producer Alfred Lion signed a deal to record Mellé, who was featured on Blue Note LP-5020 that year as New Faces New Sounds - Gil Mellé Quintet/Sextet. Progressive was not economically viable after a few years, and was sold to Savoy which re-released much of the Progressive catalog. Savoy in turn sold it to Prestige. Statiras bought the label back from Prestige in the 1970s and ran the label independently, with a support deal from Japanese record label Bainbridge.Record Labels - Birka JazzGus Statiras:Producer and Music Dealer by F. Norman Vickers. JazzHouse.org He picked up the distribution rights to a sleeper album by a rare stride piano player, a woman from California named Judy Carmichael, who had produced it but found no distributor. The album would go on to become Statiras' only GRAMMY® nominee.Judy Carmichael WebsiteRecord Labels - Birka JazzGus Statiras:Producer and Music Dealer by F. Norman Vickers. JazzHouse.org Progressive did not endure as an independent label for much longer though. Gus ran into financial troubles again, so the label was acquired by Statiras' friend George Buck, owner of the New Orleans-based Jazzology label in the 1980s. Buck kept Statiras on as the label's creative supervision, developing albums with J.R. Monteroseand Al Haig. Gus was always trying to make re-issue deals with other labels to keep his business afloat. Sometimes he didn't even own the rights. Carmichael and another pianist Tommy Flaningan both held the rights to their own recordings after release deals with Statiras ended. Statiras would sell the works without holding the rights. When the people who bought the rights from Gus realized that he didn't own them, they would make a second deal with the artist holding the rights, and pay for them again, asking the artist not to mention it to Statiras for fear of "interfering" with their relationship with him.Original Source Material - Interviews with Judy Carmichael- Brian Ross - June 1, 2013 Statiras also had his own sub-label in the 1980s, Statiras Records, which issued a few albums under its own label, including Jazz Piano by Carmichael (SLP-8074).Jazz Piano (album) - Judy Carmichael References Category:Record Producers Category:American Record Producers Category:Progressive Records Category:Jazzology Records Category:Deaths 2004 Category:Births 1922